Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services, said at the final conference of the “Best Practices of the Local Self-Government” competition of 2017 that hromadas’ projects annually submitted for the competition are becoming more and more interesting and unusual. Having received more freedom and resources in the course of decentralisation, local self-government shows that it can approach the problems creatively and solve them effectively.

“I took part in the selection of all projects of the competition. Therefore, I can say with certainty that in some time, your European colleagues will visit your hromadas to learn the best practices in solving local issues. I see that a huge potential and desire of local leaders to take interesting and non-standard decisions is finally released. By your own example, you overcome disbelief, demonstrating that changes are possible and depend on initiative people on the ground. By winning, you make your hromada residents the winners, you become an example to follow, you inspire others,” Vyacheslav Negoda appealed to the participants of the competition.

In 2017, 29 local self-governments, including 10 amalgamated hromadas, two oblast councils, three rayon councils, eight town, four village and two rural settlement councils were awarded within the framework of the competition.

12 finalists were marked out on the topic “Transparency and Accountability of Local Self-Government”, 14 finalists – on the topic “Regions and Hromadas’ Development Practices Based on Their Own Strategies and Resources”, and 3 finalists were marked on the “Cooperation of Hromadas" topic.

It is worth reminding that “Best Practices of Local Self-Government” competition has been held annually since 2014. Over the past four years 108 practices have been marked out.